Le marché de Noel le 6 décembre 2015

Le principe du marché de Noel est de noyer le flâneur dans une foule de tentations, entre les parfums d'épices, de vin chaud et de gromperekichelcher, les chants de Noel et les couleurs vives des étals, je me suis faufilée au coeur de la foule pour saisir un peu de ce brouhaha…évidemment le dessin s'en ressent et on ne perçoit vraiment plus rien de la place d'Armes.

 

Le marché de Noel place d'Armes

Forgeron au travail en face du Cercle Cité

Puis nous nous sommes retrouvés au Kaale Kaffi pour boire un merveilleux thé au gingembre en continuant nos esquisses

Jacqueline et Leen en train de dessiner

Messing around with oil pastels at the december sketchcrawl

I am not a big fan of Christmas markets, but for sketchers there are quite some challenges! For the last sketchcrawl of the year I prepared my oil pastels and some coloured paper to capture the colourful scenes.

 I am still learning to work with the pastels, and my first sketch came out too stiff, but I like the detail of the balloons and the little kid.

Then I tried to sketch the blacksmiths who were demonstrating their work on the market (also because it was comfortingly warm near their little oven...). One of the smiths wanted to buy my sketch. When I gave it to him for free he offered me one of his creations. Before giving him my sketch I quickly made this unsharp picture in the rain that had started to fall all of a sudden. One can see the tiny drops of water on the paper...

After an hour or so our sketcher´s group landed at our favorite place, Kaale Kaffi, where we enjoyed the beautiful decoration,  the delicate ginger and lemon tea, the cappuccino, the nice service, the sketching and last but not least, the warm company.

Leen

People gazing at the Christmas market

For the last sketchcrawl of the year, we decided to aim for the Christmas market in the capital.

This time around we were quite the crowd, with 10 people spreading around the place to sketch the little houses, the people, the surrounding buildings.

I started with the best intentions of capturing a scene of the whole market or at least a portion of it, but somehow only managed to focus on a funny little statue on top of one of the stalls.

The drunk Santa was just irresistible.

Luckily, the weather was quite mild for the season and there was a big crowd, which allowed me to sketch my favourite subject: people.

People being people, though, I did not have many cooperative models and had to be as fast as possible, so I ended up mainly with a collection of hastily jotted squiggles.

 

It's ok, though, for a collection of squiggles always looks better than one squiggle alone :D

After a while it started feeling cold, so we headed to one of our favourite cafés, the Kaale Kaffi.

Everyone was pretty much at the Christmas market, so we were able to sit the whole group at the big table.

Nothing like sipping on a ginger lemon tea while drawing with sketching buddies to finish a lovely afternoon.

IN & OUT the Rotondes...

I completely agree with Beliza about the feeling and the identity of that particular place of Luxembourg. It will be nice to come back here when the courtyard will be crowded of people during the many Spring and Summer activities ...

La Buvette
black ink at chinese brush and white Posca on craft paper

Rotonde 2, courtyard and foodtruck
black ink at chinese brush and white Posca on craft paper

Les Rotondes et La Buvette

Last Saturday we met at La Buvette, the pub at Rotondes in Bonnevoie, for the sketchcrawl organised by LUCA .

The Rotondes used to be buildings where trains were repaired and stored. They were repurposed a few years ago and have now become this trendy place where various cultural events take place, such as exhibitions, concerts, plays, etc.

Unlike so many places in Luxembourg it is not overly clean and organised. I love the occasional messiness of the place.

Undeterred by the cold, we started out on the outside, where the food truck is. I couldn't resist sketching the trailer and the many seemingly randomly placed cables with their colourful lightbulbs. I'll have to add some colour to this sketch sometime.

Spot the sketcher

I have to say we were quite the troopers out there. The day was pleasant but pretty cold. At some point my hands turned a shade of purple. It got so bad that I didn't even feel the heat emanating from the glass of mulled wine I was holding.

Luckily, the inside of the Rotondes is just as interesting as the outside, and we warmed ourselves up at La Buvette. The servers are very friendly and we enjoyed the cosy afternoon atmosphere.

Isabelle busy sketching

Site Mansfeld 4 octobre 2015 (Luca - UskL)

Ma première sortie avec le LUCA et les Urban sketchers. Comment rendre un site historique aussi prestigieux que les ruines du château de Mansfeld? Une belle journée, s'imaginer des jardins, se demander comment étaient les constructions et qui habitait ces lieux. Un long moment de calme concentré, ponctué au loin par les commentaires d'un habitant irrité par je ne sais quoi, mais invisible depuis cette cour protégée du monde extérieur.

Dans la cour

Saisir des points de vues, des passages laissant apercevoir un lieu plus loin.

une ouverture

Puis et boire un pot à une terrasse en dessinant avec

        Nancy,    Stefan,    Yannick,     Arnaud,          Ernest,        Angelica,    Jean-Paul,     Alexandre et Suzanna

C'était vraiment un très bel après-midi d'automne !!

Cathédrale le 8 novembre 2015 (UskL)

Le parvis de la cathédrale, dégagé, sobre, offre une transition entre l’agitation urbaine de la place de la Constitution et le calme recueilli des lieux de culte.

Depuis ce parvis presque austère, tenter de saisir le désordre palpitant d’une place hésitant entre parking et fête foraine.

Place de la Constitution depuis le parvis de la cathédrale

En tournant le dos à la ville, l’entrée dans la cathédrale réchauffe doucement malgré l’atmosphère sombre et silencieuse, lentement s’installe une sorte de paix, et le regard parcourt les motifs des colonnes, s’accroche aux lueurs colorées des vitraux pour se perdre dans l’ombre mystérieuse des voûtes de la nef.

 A l'intérieur de la cathédrale

…puis aller ensemble boire un café ou un chocolat et manger un gâteau à la Maison du chocolat

Les lustres de la Maison du chocolat

Rotondes 28 novembre 2015 (Luca-Usk)

Ce dernier samedi de novembre était étonnement ensoleillé, mais vraiment très froid.

Encouragés par les derniers rayons de soleil, nous avons opté pour la terrasse et bravé les engelures à coup de boissons chaudes. D'autres courageux ont profité de la terrasse emmitouflés dans des couvertures.

Rotonde extérieur: la terrasse

Quand nous ne sentions plus nos doigts nous nous sommes réfugiés dans la buvette des rotondes pour nous réchauffer, profiter de l'atmosphère tamisée et continuer à dessiner.

Ambiance tamisée dans la buvette avec vue sur l'intérieur de la rotonde en chantier

       

 

…bien au chaud Béliza et Elia concentrées sur leurs esquisses